The Empire has arrived and created a new world order. Before the heroes can thrive in this new paradigm, they have to survive first.

Morthane Must Die

After rescuing Rarrakk, the PCs contemplated their next move. Vek-Tor convinced the others to search for another of Rageus’ lost temples. He discovered through communing with Malthos that two other temples capable of manufacturing droids were still undiscovered. One produced droid starships near the Tifnyl system. The other produced droid infantry soldiers and was located on the planet of Coyn. The PCs decided to investigate the temple on Coyn once Vek-Tor reminded them that Morthane was last seen there.

The PCs began their research and planning to find the temple and to defeat Morthane once and for all once they found him. Vek-Tor prepared a medical mixture to defeat Morthane’s ability to possess an individual like Madame Lipsuk. The others gleaned clues from the history books to determine the location the Coyn temple.

They set out to where their research suggested and began combing the forests. Eventually, they stumbled into an ambush of droids. The PCs found themselves surrounded by Purge Troopers while Sniper Droidekas blasted them from a nearby cliff. Vek-Tor used the Force to throw the droids against each other and into disarray. The droids never recovered and were quickly dispatched by the PCs.

They continued their search and eventually found a ziggurat looking similar to the temple on Derilyn. Upon exploring the temple, the PCs found rooms in similar places. However, all had been looted already. The lift to the top floor opened to the outside and it was there that the PCs encountered a waiting Morthane.

Morthane, in his possessed Bothan body, sat atop the ziggurat in a throne overlooking the quiet Coyn countryside. As the PCs stepped from the lift, Morthane activated a button on the throne that, brought four dog like statues to life. Vek-Tor launched into the air with his jet pack and landed on the throne above. The other struggled to damage the powerful robotic statues. As Vek-Tor landed, he used the Force to knock the droids prone and prepared to face Morthane.

Morthane used force lightning and pushed Vek-Tor off the small platform. Vek-Tor reignited his jetpack and began to choke Morthane with the Force. Flying two headed reptiles emerged to defend Morthane. They forced Vek-Tor to land, but he managed to keep his choke hold on Morthane. Staggered, Morthane activated another button on his throne and the ziggurat began to shake. The platform where the throne was attached began to lower.

Meanwhile the temple began to divide itself into four separate structures and separated itself. Each of the four dog like droids returned to their previous position and turned back into statues. The throne platform became a lift that descended into the depths of Coyn with Vek-Tor and Morthane. A blast door sealed them in and prevented the other PCs from joining them. The constant moving buildings forced the others to activate their jet packs.

Each above ground PC tried to fly away from the vicious beasts and return fire. Pinstripe was mauled and nearly died after almost crashing. Mawr landed on a different temple block and tried to draw the beast away. His intense fire convinced the flying beast to attack him instead of Pinstripe. The other beast attacked Nimble. She returned fire with her missile launcher.

Vek-Tor found himself alone with his nemesis, Morthane, during the forever seeming ride to the bottom. The throne placed a force field around Morthane who still struggled against the force choke Vek-Tor maintained. The throne attempted to heal Morthane like a medical droid. Despite the force field, Vek-Tor used the Force to hurl Morthane against the throne and damaging the throne’s capability to heal Morthane.

Finally, the lift stopped and Vek-Tor looked around to see a dilapidated control room. Hoses hung from the ceiling and sparks flew from exposed circuits in the floor. A bank of computers lined one wall and seated at one was Madame Lipsuk. She worriedly looked at Vek-Tor and the compromised Morthane. “I don’t want to be possessed!” she cried and began running up a nearby ramp and out of Vek-Tor’s view.

Back above ground, Keela and Kel-Ra occupied areas far apart so that at least three of them could attack a beast without being attacked themselves. By concentrating their fire, they took down the first one while Nimble dodged the poison tail of the other.

The last beast had a difficult time choosing who to attack. When it attacked Nimble, Mawr would lay down a devastating blaster barrage. When it attacked Mawr, Nimble would fire missiles at it. The beast slowly began to lose altitude and struggled to keep up the fight. Finally Mawr finished it off with a double tap to each of its heads.

Vek-Tor released Morthane from his force choke and followed Madame Lipsuk to the base of the ramp. He drew a syringe of sith poison antidote from his utility belt. As he reached the base of the ramp, he could see Lipsuk again as she was just about to turn the corner. Before she could leave his sight again, Vek-Tor quickly sent the syringe flying towards Lipsuk. The syringe injected into her the antidote. Vek-Tor quickly turned back to Morthane.

In order to inject Lipsuk, Vek-Tor had to release Morthane from his Force choke. Morthane drew his sith blade and advanced towards Vek-Tor with a vengeance. Vek-Tor dodged the blade’s thrust and sidestepped. Suddenly more figures seemed to be standing in the room. Turning, Vek-Tor saw the ghosts of Malthos and Darth Rageus shouting at him and giving conflicting advice. The distraction almost allowed Morthane to slip his sith blade into Vek-Tor’s back.

Vek-Tor ignored the ghostly apparitions and turned to finish Morthane. He reached out with the Force once more to hurl Morthane towards the throne. The sith alchemist cried out one last time before his neck was snapped. He sighed and a ghostly cloud emerged from the Bothan body. The cloud moved to the unconscious body of Madame Lipsuk. It hovered for a short time before dissolving.

Vek-Tor moved to Madame Lipsuk to check if it was indeed her or if Morthane had beaten the antidote. Vek-Tor sensed for the spirit of Morthane and was relieved to not find him. He had finally defeated the dark jedi. Vek-Tor stood up knowing he had completed his Trial of Courage. As far as Vek-Tor knew, he was the last jedi knight in the galaxy. It was time for this knight to take a stand against oppression.